Kept waking up for no apparent reason. The fleece blanket I bought at BB&B the other day works well with the quilt. Very comfy. Stayed in bed till 9:30 or maybe later. Spook made a brief visit at some ungodly hour.

Decided today was the day to visit Buddy's Cannabis, which turns out to be in an industrial section of San Jose, Not really very far by 101 & Old Oakland Road. They had been getting massive publicity because they were the first place in CA licensed to sell recreational pot, and with many cities delaying their licensing process, they got a lot of "foreign" visitors on NY Day. They were swamped for days, but this morning it was very quiet. Security guard at the door asked to see my ID (have to be 21 to enter) and then the receptionist asked again (probably for legal or marketing). And then there were comfortable seats to wait in until a salesperson was free. 3-4 minutes.

I told him what I was looking for, something edible & not gummy to help me sleep without getting me high. He only had one product which fit, capsules which had a 2:1 ratio of CBD to THC, both in fairly low dosages. $60 for 12 was a bit steep, but I expected that. $10 of that was taxes.

Headed home, but needed to stop off at a grocery for chicken broth. The Walmart food store in the Mercado was on the way, and they actually had something better - chicken soup stock, unsalted. I also picked up some chicken broth, unsalted.

As is my habit, I browsed the store, and picked up some other stuff. Sugar-free fruit popsicles, Klondike bars, dark chocolate bars, frozen melon balls & mango chunks, and a bottle of Squid brand fish sauce, because I couldn't remember if I ever replaced the old off-brand bottle I dumped.

Home, garbage had been collected, so I brought that back to its place by the air con unit. The cover had blown off the aircon again, puzzling since there was no wind. Hmmm.**

Put some stuff away, but also got out ingredients to make Tom Ka Gai. Out on the porch, I watched hummingbirds as I gathered a dozen Thai lime leaves for the soup. Inside, cut up a pair of limes since the recipe called for fresh squeezed juice. Pulled 4 cans of coconut milk from the cupboard, saw I already had a bottle of Squid fish sauce, but opened the new one anyway.

The recipe was out of my friend Nancie's book, Real Thai, which I think is still the best Thai cookbook on the planet. Nancie was in my Peace Corps group, and we have kept in touch through the years. My autographed copy of the book was a pleasant surprise - I was at the Gilroy Garlic Festival mumble mumble years ago, and heard her voice from the demo tent. And smelled the basil. After the demo I went up and bought a book, and despite the years & beard & fat she recognized me right away. We have kept in touch ever since.

I sliced 20 pieces of galanga, and a small lotus root (not in her recipe, but I like the pretty patterns), smashed up and cut 4 lemongrass stalks, cut up half a pound each of chicken breast & thigh into small bite-sized pieces, dropped in 10 peppercorns, and 6 of the lime leaves.

Into the pot went 4.5 cups of coconut milk and 1.5 cups of chicken stock. Brought to a boil and simmer, added all the ingredients, cooked for 15 minutes, then added straw and oyster mushrooms (cut up), lime juice and fish sauce and took it off the heat.

The book didn't say what to do with the other 6 lime leaves. I emailed Nancie, and apparently in all these years (1992) nobody had caught that. She said they were to line the serving bowl with (since the first 6 were now cooked and flavorless). I have two batches left, will try it with those.

Ladled a serving's worth into a bowl and that was dinner. 1/2 a pound of longans for dessert. Watched a mindless Bravo show, Beach House, because there were pretty women showing off as much of their anatomies as possible, hoping to hook up. The insecurity of pretty women continues to amaze me. The men they were after were no prizes. IMHO.

Also watched PTI and an episode of Shark Tank. And surfed between Beach House and Animal Planet's show about Alaska trappers. I don't get why this show is on Animal Planet. It's mostly about surviving in the middle of frozen nowhere. But then, what is a reality hookup show doing on Bravo, the cultural entertainment network?

In checking out the web site of the folks who made the cannabis capsules, I found a licensed dispensary closer to home, and their price was just over half of what I paid at Buddy's. And they had more choices. I may have to visit, if the capsules work. Next weekend, because I don't want to try a new sleep aid on a work night.

The brokerage funds arrived in my bank account, so I paid down all my credit cards. Paid off two, paid the balance on another, and just over half the balance on the one I owe the most to.

Ordered a replacement cover for the aircon unit, since the reason this one blew off was all the glue holding the cinch tabs had disintegrated.

** And then the Aha! moment. Turns out the guy who set up the Nest thermostat had set it to heat + cool, which is what I'll want in a few months when we have summer days and cool nights. It was actually turning on the air conditioning to bring the temps down when they got above the median threshold. Major waste of gas & power. So I changed it to just heat.

Had a couple of good visits with Zoe. She of course figured out how to open the closet doors, now that she knew they could open (thanks, Spook! NOT!). So now she likes to hide on top of a moving box in the closet. I'm pretty sure inside the box is a very expensive Thai silk, blackout lined curtain which used to hang above the sliding glass doors in the bedroom of my last apartment. It's not wide enough for my livingroom, and way too wide for the bedroom.